Hiking the Cinque Terre Trail

Cinque Terre is a gorgeous destination on the Italian Riviera that’s become a popular vacation spot. Literally translating to “five lands”, Cinque Terre consists of five separate towns, each with aqua blue coast lines and colorful houses built up in its mountains.

Each town offers something a little different. From the beaches in Monterosso to the vineyards in Manarola, you can easily explore all five towns by hopping on and off the Eurorail as you please.

You can also hike the 8 miles of land connecting each town! It’s some of the most beautiful hiking trails in the world. (Hard to say if it beats the hike in Santorini, but it’s definitely up there).

We couldn’t wait to get our sneakers on that trail.

Certain sections of the complete hike are temporarily closed due to landslides, so we weren’t able to hike from Trail #1 in Riomaggiore to Trail #5 in Monterroso.

Our seaside apartment was in Manarola, which is home to the most famous of the five trails. This trail is actually one of the closed sections, so we hopped on the train and began our trek in Corniglia, Trail #3.

Off to Vernazza!

They weren’t kidding when they said this was one of the more difficult trails. Corniglia to Vernazza was only 2.2 miles, but up and down the twists and turns of the mountain was a serious leg work out.

Naturally, we rewarded ourselves with a wine tasting in Monterosso and sunset dinner on the water.